What's new

Worst Blade

I have no idea. I didn’t use a great variety and all performed adequately. I suppose any blades in disposables. I mostly used Personna Blue when I used a DE. I use Derby’s in shavettes I use when I travel and they work beautifully but never used one in a DE. I Hone my own now.
Same here. I get great results with Derby's in my Shavette. I buy the half blades and have never tried one in a DE. I mainly use Voskhod's in my DE
 
Most folks are using sample packs when they are just starting out and have not developed an excellent shaving technique. BIC Chrome Platinum blades are extremely sharp and will tear up your face if you technique is less than perfect. If you have now been shaving long enough to refine your technique, you might try them again and be surprised at how good they are. Blood loss is almost always due to poor shaving technique rather than blade quality, but an extremely sharp blade will point out errors in technique quite quickly.
Nope, don’t think so. The feather and Gillette yellow blades gave me a great shave. And so did many others. The bic blade was so atrocious I didn’t even finish the shave with it.
 
Nope, don’t think so. The feather and Gillette yellow blades gave me a great shave. And so did many others. The bic blade was so atrocious I didn’t even finish the shave with it.

The BICs I have used have been sharper than Gillette yellow and smoother than Feather. Perhaps you got a bad batch of BICs, or even counterfeit blades. I will be glad to send you some of my good ones if you PM me with your address.
 
Derby! It's not even close. They're so bad, I cut them off for shims so they'll continue to serve me in perpetuity. Kind of a Get Out type of deal for my worst blade.
 
Derby. Shark. AstraSP. Indian Green Gillette. I bought those by mistake. Merkur. Timor. Waste of money
 
See now, Astra SPs are my preferred blade. I agree with your other choices.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I might give them another shot. It was years ago. I still have a 5 pack. I have a tuck of Vokshods to try too, and a few Polsilvers laying around. Man....this was like 10 Or more years ago! I'm sure my technique has improved. Back then I was using barbasol and a Merkur 23C. Now it has a WCS OC head on it that I tried recently to good effect. I May revisit some old blades from samplers etc I have. I mainly stick with GSB, Nacet, and Platinums. But the derbys I tossed😂
 
The BICs I have used have been sharper than Gillette yellow and smoother than Feather. Perhaps you got a bad batch of BICs, or even counterfeit blades. I will be glad to send you some of my good ones if you PM me with your address.
I used BIC yesterday and today for the first time. I won't say its the best blade I have ever used, but I will say I have never had a better couple of shaves in over 7 years of wet shaving. I was super concerned because I bought them for $12.00/100 from a famous mass retailer and after all the mixed reviews, I wasn't sure what I would get. Of course I'm still not and won't until I get into multiple packs. I have a coarse beard but with sharp blades, I skip WTG and XTG passes and perform 2 ATG passes to get a daily BBS. I find this process gives me much less irritation than the 4 pass shaves I used to do. I can only do the 2 pass BBS shaves with the sharpest blades. I knew from the first ATG stroke that this was an EXTREMELY sharp blade but yet was very smooth. I was using a Timeless SS.95 OC and this blade seems made for this razor. I will try a 3rd day with this blade as it still seems very sharp. I'm just hoping now that the BIC quality control allows for all the other blades I purchased to be as good. I am still surprised at the comments on both extremes on these blades. Who knows, in a few weeks I may be back to this thread saying this is the worst blade ever, but not so far.
 
I have been a DE shaver since 1980.
The only blades that were "bad" for me were the Merkurs that came with my second ever razor (a 34c) that I bought in 2000.
My favourite blades after all these years are the SS Sharks,the only blades I will ever use since I do have a lifetime supply of them (at the ridiculous prices they sell for I bought around 500 of these a few years back)
 
*reads through thread* Geez, so many blades I haven't tried or had the chance to hate yet. :)

I have an easier time deciding how I feel about blades because I use only two razors, a pair of nearly-identical Gillette adjustables, on the same setting which I never change. I haven't had a truly bad shave with a DE since my technique and my razors have been locked in, so I don't get weepers or much irritation anymore, but there are blades that annoy me more than others.

I find that blades with a reputation for being very sharp (7OC India blacks, lab blues) are likely to generate a bit of irritation, so I'm not going to buy things like Bics or Feathers. Blades with a reputation for less sharpness will give me one or two decent shaves but they get thrown out after that because I find whatever cutting power they have isn't durable. There are Dorco ST301s, Gillette India "Winner" blades and Derby Premiums in the house; I've used Merkurs, Sharks, Derby Extras and VDH blades too. I will probably slowly run through what's in the house one at a time if I get bored with my better blades, but I won't buy any of these again. No point.

Wilkinson Sword Classic (the German ones) are good enough to use regularly, and I do, but I usually have my best luck with PPI-made blades. GSBs, Gillette Platinums, and 7OC yellows are in the house and get a lot of use; I've also had success with Polsilver and red-box Gillette Stainless. US-market Gillette Platinum Plus are also great for me. Israeli-made Personnas (I have two dispensers bought off of store shelves here) work fine too, though I won't seek those out.

I certainly won't be buying anything I haven't already tried that earned complaints in this thread. Why bother, when that money can be put toward known good blades instead? I don't need to touch the electric fence for myself; I'm perfectly happy to take multiple people's word for it that a particular blade wasn't good for them.
 
*reads through thread* Geez, so many blades I haven't tried or had the chance to hate yet. :)

I have an easier time deciding how I feel about blades because I use only two razors, a pair of nearly-identical Gillette adjustables, on the same setting which I never change. I haven't had a truly bad shave with a DE since my technique and my razors have been locked in, so I don't get weepers or much irritation anymore, but there are blades that annoy me more than others.

I find that blades with a reputation for being very sharp (7OC India blacks, lab blues) are likely to generate a bit of irritation, so I'm not going to buy things like Bics or Feathers. Blades with a reputation for less sharpness will give me one or two decent shaves but they get thrown out after that because I find whatever cutting power they have isn't durable. There are Dorco ST301s, Gillette India "Winner" blades and Derby Premiums in the house; I've used Merkurs, Sharks, Derby Extras and VDH blades too. I will probably slowly run through what's in the house one at a time if I get bored with my better blades, but I won't buy any of these again. No point.

Wilkinson Sword Classic (the German ones) are good enough to use regularly, and I do, but I usually have my best luck with PPI-made blades. GSBs, Gillette Platinums, and 7OC yellows are in the house and get a lot of use; I've also had success with Polsilver and red-box Gillette Stainless. US-market Gillette Platinum Plus are also great for me. Israeli-made Personnas (I have two dispensers bought off of store shelves here) work fine too, though I won't seek those out.

I certainly won't be buying anything I haven't already tried that earned complaints in this thread. Why bother, when that money can be put toward known good blades instead? I don't need to touch the electric fence for myself; I'm perfectly happy to take multiple people's word for it that a particular blade wasn't good for them.


I like super sharp blades because my beard is really tough. However, not everyone needs that level of sharpness.

It seems that the mid-sharp blades work best for you; 7 O'Clock Yellow, Gillette Silver Blue, Gillette Platinum, and Polsilver. There are a few other blades in that range that you might like: Gillette branded Wilkinson Sword, Voskhod, 7 O'Clock Russian Greens, and Rapira Platinum Lux. But if you already have several blades that work well for you, there is no urgency to look for alternatives.
 
I see a lot of people complaining about the Derby Extra. I tried them over a couple of weeks now and I must say that I really enjoy Derby Extra (the green package). I find them smooth but not boring at all. Maybe the newer blades are better; I hear that there were some changes to the blade a couple of years ago….

BTW, worst blade for me was Personna (made in USA). The Israeli ones are nice)
That's interesting. I use the Derby green half blades in my Parker Shavette and I love them. I tried using the full blades in a DE and I don't get along with them. That's strange because it's the same blade just cut in half.
 
Shark. I tried three of them in different razors and they all felt like they weren't stropped never doing that to my face again

The Shark brand comprises three different blades: Shark Super Chrome, Shark Super Stainless, and Shark Platinum. I find the Chrome to be pretty dull. I have not tried the Stainless. I took a chance on the Platinum and found they were very good blades, both sharp and smooth. They are worth a look.
 
The Shark brand comprises three different blades: Shark Super Chrome, Shark Super Stainless, and Shark Platinum. I find the Chrome to be pretty dull. I have not tried the Stainless. I took a chance on the Platinum and found they were very good blades, both sharp and smooth. They are worth a look.
The Shark stainless work well for me in a Shavette and a DE.
 
That's interesting. I use the Derby green half blades in my Parker Shavette and I love them. I tried using the full blades in a DE and I don't get along with them. That's strange because it's the same blade just cut in half.

I think a lot of the Derby Extra blades (green) are sold as half-blades for use in shavettes. I know Sally Beauty Supply sells them for that use. With a shavette, the angle of attack of the blade is normally quite shallow compared to a DE razor. I suspect that is why you are seeing the difference in performance. You might get a similar result in a DE if you ride the cap to get a shallow shave angle.
 
The BICs I have used have been sharper than Gillette yellow and smoother than Feather. Perhaps you got a bad batch of BICs, or even counterfeit blades. I will be glad to send you some of my good ones if you PM me with your address.
You are right that they could have been bad blades. I have had a few bad blades from my 100 packs of favorites that I threw out after the first shave. I have heard of counterfeits out there, what a shame for us to have to deal with that. Thank you for your kind offer. You are a true gentleman. I basically only use my feather artist SS now, so I will graciously decline. But thank you again.
 
I think a lot of the Derby Extra blades (green) are sold as half-blades for use in shavettes. I know Sally Beauty Supply sells them for that use. With a shavette, the angle of attack of the blade is normally quite shallow compared to a DE razor. I suspect that is why you are seeing the difference in performance. You might get a similar result in a DE if you ride the cap to get a shallow shave angle.
That's a good point. I may try them again.
 
Top Bottom